Jury Duty

Film Independent, which fosters independence and inclusivity in visual storytelling, has announced the nominations for the 39th annual Film Independent Spirit Awards. A key indicator in the lead-up to the Academy Awards, films American Fiction, Past Lives and May December racked up five nods, indicating a likely big presence when awards season ramps up in January. Television series like Jury Duty, Beef and The Last of Us also did well in the nominations round.

“This year’s exciting group of Spirit Award nominees reflect the undeniable strength and vitality of independent storytelling—this is the beating heart of film culture today,” said Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent. “It’s especially thrilling to see so many nominees who have benefited from the support of the Artist Development program. We can’t wait to celebrate the incredible work these artists have created and look forward to everything they have in store for us for years to come.”

Hosted by Aidy Bryant, the Film Independent Spirit Awards will take place on Feb. 25 in Santa Monica. Read on for the full list of nominees.

BEST FEATURE 

All of Us Strangers

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Sarah Harvey

American Fiction

Producers: Cord Jefferson, Jermaine Johnson, Nikos Karamigios, Ben LeClair

May December

Producers: Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Grant S. Johnson, Pamela Koffler, Tyler W. Konney, Sophie Mas, Natalie Portman, Christine Vachon

Passages

Producers: Michel Merkt, Saïd Ben Saïd

Past Lives

Producers: David Hinojosa, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

We Grown Now

Producers: Minhal Baig, Joe Pirro

BEST FIRST FEATURE

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Director: Raven Jackson

Producers: Maria Altamirano, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint

Director: Tomás Gómez Bustillo

Producers: Gewan Brown, Amanda Freedman

Earth Mama

Director/Producer: Savanah Leaf

Producers: Sam Bisbee, Shirley O’Connor, Medb Riordan, Cody Ryder

A Thousand and One

Director: A.V. Rockwell

Producers: Julia Lebedev, Rishi Rajani, Eddie Vaisman, Lena Waithe, Brad Weston

Upon Entry

Directors: Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez

Producers: Sergio Adrià, Carlos Juárez, Alba Sotorra, Carles Torras, Xosé Zapata 

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD – Given to the best feature made for under $1,000,000

The Artifice Girl

Director/Writer: Franklin Ritch

Producers: Aaron B. Koontz, Ashleigh Snead

Cadejo Blanco

Director/Writer/Producer: Justin Lerner

Producers: Mauricio Escobar, Ryan Friedkin, Jack Patrick Hurley

Fremont

Director/Writer: Babak Jalali

Writer: Carolina Cavalli

Producers: Rachael Fung, Chris Martin, Marjaneh Moghimi, George Rush, Sudnya Shroff, Laura Wagner

Rotting in the Sun

Director/Writer: Sebastián Silva

Writer: Pedro Peirano

Producer: Jacob Wasserman

The Unknown Country

Director/Writer/Producer: Morrisa Maltz

Writer: Lily Gladstone

Writers/Producers: Lainey Bearkiller Shangreaux, Vanara Taing

Producers: Katherine Harper, Laura Heberton, Tommy Heitkamp

BEST DIRECTOR

Andrew Haigh

All of Us Strangers

Todd Haynes

May December

William Oldroyd

Eileen

Ira Sachs

Passages

Celine Song

Past Lives

BEST SCREENPLAY

David Hemingson

The Holdovers

Cord Jefferson

American Fiction

Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien

Birth/Rebirth

Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott

Bottoms

Celine Song

Past Lives

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY

Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch, Alex Mechanik

May December

Noah Galvin, Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman, Ben Platt

Theater Camp

Tomás Gómez Bustillo

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint

Laurel Parmet

The Starling Girl

Alejandro Rojas, Juan Sebastián Vásquez

Upon Entry

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE

Jessica Chastain

Memory

Greta Lee

Past Lives

Trace Lysette

Monica

Natalie Portman

May December

Judy Reyes

Birth/Rebirth

Franz Rogowski

Passages

Andrew Scott

All of Us Strangers

Teyana Taylor

A Thousand and One

Jeffrey Wright

American Fiction

Teo Yoo

Past Lives

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE

Erika Alexander

American Fiction

Sterling K. Brown

American Fiction

Noah Galvin

Theater Camp

Anne Hathaway

Eileen

Glenn Howerton

BlackBerry

Marin Ireland

Eileen

Charles Melton

May December

Da’Vine Joy Randolph

The Holdovers

Catalina Saavedra

Rotting in the Sun

Ben Whishaw

Passages

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Marshawn Lynch

Bottoms

Atibon Nazaire

Mountains

Tia Nomore

Earth Mama

Dominic Sessa

The Holdovers

Anaita Wali Zada

Fremont

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Katelin Arizmendi

Monica

Eigil Bryld

The Holdovers

Jomo Fray

All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt

Pablo Lozano

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint

Pat Scola

We Grown Now

BEST EDITING

Santiago Cendejas, Gabriel Díaz, Sofía Subercaseaux

Rotting in the Sun

Stephanie Filo

We Grown Now

Daniel Garber

How to Blow Up a Pipeline

Jon Philpot

Theater Camp

Emanuele Tiziani

Upon Entry 

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD 

Showing Up

Director: Kelly Reichardt

Casting Director: Gayle Keller

Ensemble Cast: André Benjamin, Hong Chau, Judd Hirsch, Heather Lawless, James Le Gros, John Magaro, Matt Malloy, Amanda Plummer, Maryann Plunkett, Denzel Rodriguez, Michelle Williams

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

Bye Bye Tiberias

Director: Lina Soualem

Producer: Jean-Marie Nizan

Four Daughters

Director: Kaouther Ben Hania

Producer: Nadim Cheikhrouha

Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project

Directors/Producers: Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson

Producer: Tommy Oliver

Kokomo City

Director: D. Smith

Producers: Bill Butler, Harris Doran

The Mother of All Lies

Director/Producer: Asmae El Moudir

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

Anatomy of a Fall

France

Director: Justine Triet

Godland

Denmark/Iceland

Director: Hlynur Pálmason

Mami Wata

Nigeria

Director: C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi

Tótem

Mexico

Director: Lila Avilés

The Zone of Interest

United Kingdom, Poland, USA

Director: Jonathan Glazer

PRODUCERS AWARD presented by Bulleit Frontier Whiskey – The Producers Award, now in its 27th year, honors emerging producers who, despite highly limited resources, demonstrate the creativity, tenacity and vision required to produce quality independent films.

Rachael Fung

Graham Swon

Monique Walton

SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD  – The Someone to Watch Award, now in its 30th year, recognizes a talented filmmaker of singular vision who has not yet received appropriate recognition.

Joanna Arnow

Director of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed

Laura Moss

Director of Birth/Rebirth

Monica Sorelle

Director of Mountains

TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD – The Truer Than Fiction Award, now in its 29th year, is presented to an emerging director of non-fiction features who has not yet received significant recognition.

Set Hernandez

Director of Unseen

Jesse Short Bull, Laura Tomaselli

Director of Lakota Nation vs. United States

Sierra Urich

Director of Joonam

BEST NEW NON-SCRIPTED OR DOCUMENTARY SERIES

Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court

Executive Producers: Vinnie Malhotra, Aaron Saidman, Eli Holzman, Dawn Porter

Dear Mama

Executive Producers: Lasse Järvi, Quincy ‘QD3’ Jones III, Staci Robinson, Nelson George, Charles D. King, Peter Nelson, Adel ‘Future’ Nur, Jamal Joseph, Ted Skillman, Allen Hughes, Steve Berman, Marc Cimino, Jody Gerson, John Janick, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair

Murder in Big Horn

Executive Producers: Matthew Galkin, Vinnie Malhotra

Co-Executive Producers: Lisa Kalikow, Joshua Levine

Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence

Executive Producers: Mindy Goldberg, Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Jon Bardin, Zach Heinzerling, Krista Parris, Daniel Barban Levin, Felicia Rosario

Co-Executive Producer: Julie Gaither

Wrestlers

Executive Producers: Greg Whiteley, Ryan O'Dowd

Co-Executive Producers: Alejandro Melendez, Adam Leibowitz

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Beef

Creator/Executive Producer: Lee Sung Jin

Executive Producers: Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Jake Schreier, Ravi Nandan, Alli Reich

Co-Executive Producers: Alice Ju, Carrie Kemper

Dreaming Whilst Black

Creator/Executive Producer: Adjani Salmon

Creators: Maximilian Evans, Natasha Jatania, Laura Seixas

Executive Producers: Tanya Qureshi, Dhanny Joshi, Bal Samra, Thomas Stogdon

I’m a Virgo

Creator/Executive Producer: Boots Riley

Executive Producers: Tze Chun, Michael Ellenberg, Lindsey Springer, Jharrel Jerome, Rebecca Rivo

Co-Executive Producers: Marcus Gardley, Carver Karaszewski

Jury Duty

Creators/Executive Producers: Lee Eisenberg, Gene Stupnitsky

Executive Producers: David Bernad, Ruben Fleischer, Nicholas Hatton, Cody Heller, Todd Schulman, Jake Szymanski, Andrew Weinberg

Slip

Creator/Executive Producer: Zoe Lister-Jones

Executive Producers: Ro Donnelly, Dakota Johnson, Katie O'Connell Marsh, David Fortier, Ivan Schneeberg

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Emma Corrin

A Murder at the End of the World

Dominique Fishback

Swarm

Betty Gilpin

Mrs. Davis

Jharrel Jerome

I’m a Virgo

Zoe Lister-Jones

Slip

Bel Powley

A Small Light

Bella Ramsey

The Last of Us

Ramón Rodríguez

Will Trent

Ali Wong

Beef

Steven Yeun

Beef

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Murray Bartlett

The Last of Us

Billie Eilish

Swarm

Jack Farthing

Rain Dogs

Nick Offerman

The Last of Us

Adina Porter

The Changeling

Lewis Pullman

Lessons in Chemistry

Benny Safdie

The Curse

Luke Tennie

Shrinking

Olivia Washington

I’m a Virgo

Jessica Williams

Shrinking

BEST BREAKTRHOUGH PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Clark Backo

The Changeling

Aria Mia Loberti

All the Light We Cannot See

Adjani Salmon

Dreaming Whilst Black

Keivonn Montreal Woodard

The Last of Us

Kara Young

I’m a Virgo

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Jury Duty

Ensemble Cast: Alan Barinholtz, Susan Berger, Cassandra Blair, David Brown, Kirk Fox, Ross Kimball, Pramode Kumar, Trisha LaFache, Mekki Leeper, James Marsden, Edy Modica, Kerry O'Neill, Rashida Olayiwola, Whitney Rice, Maria Russell, Ishmel Sahid, Ben Seaward, Ron Song, Evan Williams

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